BULKING UP THE BUNDESWEHR

The number of German soldiers is declining  (https://www.economist.com/europe/2024/06/06/germany-is-thinking-about-bringing-back-conscription)

Germany is considering the return of conscription.   The chancellor is reluctant. 

“Kriegstuchtig” does not trip easily off the English tongue.  Nor does it fall easily on German ears.  Translated roughly as “war-ready,” it is a word deployed by Boris Pistorios, the defence minister, to describe his favored destination for the long under-resourced Bundeswehr or armed forces.  Money is now pouring in, and Mr. Pistorios is overhauling the Bundeswehr’s Structures.  But like many of its NATO allies, Germany is struggling to find enough willing recruits.  The minister is among many who want Germany to consider restoring conscription, suspended since 2011, to get the numbers up. 

“Under plans drawn up in 2018 Germany aims to boost the Bundeswehr to 203,000 troops by 2031, up from around 181,000 today.   This is a fraction of the size or the men under arms during the cold war.  But the army is ageing and shrinking; given attrition, it needs to recruit 25,000 soldiers a year just to stand still.”  (The Economist, 8^th June, 2424)

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UKRAINE AND MELONI TAKE CENTER STAGE – Leaders from the G7 countries met Thursday in Italy’s Puglia region, where the future of Ukraine aid was high on the agenda

Who’s there? The meetings are hosted by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who is at the height of her political power after European Parliamentary elections last weekend. She stands in contrast to other G7 leaders from Canada, the US, the UK, Japan, and Germany, all of whom are on shakier ground domestically.

Meloni also invited an A-list of non-Western leaders like President Volodymyr Zelensky, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

The highlights:  President Joe Biden and Zelensky affirmed their partnership at a bilateral press conference. The group agreed to loan Ukraine $50 billion to rebuild its devastated infrastructure with the understanding it would be paid back by interest earned on the frozen Russian assets. They also passed a new round of sanctions aimed at countering China’s effort to remake Russia’s defense industrial base.

Looming over the group’s progress on Ukraine was the possibility that Donald Trump, who has spoken openly of pulling out of NATO and against further Ukraine aid, could be back in power by the time the group next meets in 2025. Several present — including Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and President Emmanuel Macron — are facing elections that could redefine Europe.  (Gzero Signal, 6/14/2024)

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LEFT IN THE DUST:  EUROPEAN VOTERS SWING RIGHT

Europe took a hard right turn in European Parliament elections this weekend, dealing a substantial blow to key EU leaders German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron, prompting the latter to call early elections.

In France, Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally party surged to 31.4% support – more than twice as much as Macron’s Renaissance coalition, with 14.6%. Close behind are the Socialists and their lead candidate Raphaël Glucksmann with 13.8%.

A sober-looking Macron took to French television to dissolve parliament and called for elections on June 30, with a second round on July 7. The outcome of the EU elections, he said, was “not a good result for parties who defend Europe.” This is a gamble for Macron: A similar far-right wave in the French parliamentary election could see his party lose its majority.

In Germany, projections show the far-right Alternative for Germany set to secure second place with 15% of the vote, a record high. Support for Scholz’s Social Democratic Party and coalition partner Free Democratic Party declined, securing 14% and 5% of the vote, respectively. And Germany’s Greens took the biggest hit, dropping a whopping 8.5 percentage points to 12%, as cash-strapped voters spurned costly environmental policies.

Coalition time:  Post-election, European political parties realign in blocs in the EU Parliament. The largest, the center-right European People’s Party, has  recently shifted right on issues of security, climate, and migration, and could swing further to the right if joined by Giorgia Meloni’s far-right Brothers of Italy. Another scenario would see Meloni’s group and other far-right parties such as Viktor Orban’s Fidesz party stay with the more hard-line European Conservatives and Reformists group, or become part of a new hard-right group that could form the wake of the elections. We’ll be watching the horse trading as coalitions take shape.  (Gzero Signal, 6/10/2024)

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WESTERN WOMEN IGNORE ATROCITIES COMMITTED BY PALESTINIANS

• Today, June 19, the United Nations will observe the annual International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict. Yet, it took the UN five months to document and condemn Hamas’ sexual crimes on October 7.

• These crimes are reminiscent of the crimes ISIS (Islamic State) committed against Christians and Yazidis during and after their violent takeover of large parts of Iraq and Syria in 2014.

• Sexual assault as a military tactic has commonly been used by Islamic terrorists since the seventh century, worldwide.

• More than 2,600 abducted Yazidi women and children are to this day still waiting to be rescued from the hands of ISIS terrorists.

• Teenage girls abducted by Islamic State terrorists in Iraq and Syria were sold in slave markets “for as little as a pack of cigarettes,” the UN envoy on sexual violence, Zainab Bangura, said.

• “Since October 7th, the media has suppressed your [Israelis’] story, even going so far as to claim it never happened while others justified it as warranted resistance to Israeli oppression. Someone please tell me where children bound and shot to death with their guts cut out constitutes a warranted resistance…  We live in a time where intelligent people are being silenced so that stupid people are not offended…. The media is actively suppressing the events of October 7th to rewrite history according to their chosen narrative….  It all boils down to likes, views, and revenue for them.” — Steve Maman, founder of The Liberation of Christian and Yazidi Children of Iraq.

• “[On October 7], humiliation, mutilation and murder took place during those rapes. Woman raped in front of their loved ones and then shot. Knives inserted into their private parts. Scalped heads. Nails inserted into woman’s private areas. Indescribable pain must have taken place before death….  Attacking innocent people and subjecting hostages to torture is not an act of freedom fighting…. The global response to victims of radical Islam has consistently been one of silence, allowing such atrocities to continue unchecked, perpetuating a cycle of violence.” — Steve Maman.  (Uzay Bulut, Gatestone, 6/19/2024)

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EUROPE’S EXTREME RIGHT MEETS

An international conference in Hungary is promoting cooperation between conservative and extreme right-wing parties in the European Union. CPAC Hungary was opened on Wednesday 25 April in Budapest by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and will end on Friday. The event brings together politicians from parties organised in the conservative European People’s Party (EPP), which includes Germany’s CDU and CSU, and parties such as the Belgian Vlaams Belang or the French Rassemblement National, which are classified as extreme right-wing. The event has been organised against a background of efforts in the European Parliament to tear down the longstanding cordon sanitaire between the EPP and the far right. The anti-fascist firewall has in any case been crumbling for a long time in the EU. We see here another initiative to forge a broad right-wing bloc. On Wednesday, the EPP together with the two far-right groups, ECR and ID, combined to jointly reject a motion in the European Parliament. Some observers see this as a test run for further collaborations. CPAC Hungary is an offshoot of the Trump-affiliated CPAC in the United States. Its members include US Republicans as well as far-right figures from Latin America and Israel.  (German Foreign Policy 6/13/2024)

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BRIEFLY

• Children In West Bank Celebrate Eid Al-Adha By Brandishing Weapons, Wearing Hamas And Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) Headbands; Preschoolers In NJ Islamic School Learn To Slaughter Toy Sheep As Part Of ‘Mock Hajj’. (MEMRI. 6/17/2024)

• Hamas Official Baraka: North Korea Is Part Of Our Alliance; Hamas Official Basem Naim’s Message To Samidoun ‘Resistance Festival’ In Belgium: I Salute Each And Every One Of You; We Will Celebrate The Victory Of Our People, From The River To The Sea. (MEMRI, 6/19/2024)

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BIBLICAL SOLUTIONS

Constantly, we hear of somebody who is missing.    A couple of weeks ago, a well-known TV personality had gone off for an afternoon walk on a very hot afternoon on a Greek island.  He then disappeared.   When he was found, he was dead.  

Today, a UK teenager is missing on Tenerife.   After a party, others had found their way home; this one got lost.  He’s now been missing for over 60 hours.   He has no water with him despite the intense heat.   The search continues. 

Both of these people, and countless others, would have experienced different outcomes if they had taken somebody along with them when they set off on the journey.

In the Biblical book of Ecclesiastes, the author observes that: 

   Two are better than one,
    because they have a good return for their labor:
   If either of them falls down,
    one can help the other up.
   But pity anyone who falls
    and has no one to help them up.  (Eccl 4:9-10)

It seems so obvious. 

Women are especially at risk when they go off alone, and not just from the natural environment.

The last point made is that if you fall and have no one to help you up, the outcome can be disastrous.   That is what happened with the first man mentioned.

People should never be over-confident.   They should always realize the risks.  Walking with somebody else minimizes the risk.  Always. 

ISRAEL-GAZA VIOLENCE ESCALATES

Taking cover in Ashdod, Israel, on Tuesday as sirens warned of incoming rockets from Gaza.Credit…Abir Sultan/EPA, via Shutterstock

Luke 21:20 “When you see Jerusalem being surrounded by armies, you will know that its desolation is near.

Zech 12:3  And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.

“The UK, the United States and the European Union have appealed to Israel and the Palestinians to calm the violence which has broken out between them, as soon as possible.

It’s after days of unrest turned into rocket fire and military air strike attacks between the two sides. The violence escalated on Monday night after Palestinian militants fired rockets toward Jerusalem.  In response, the Israeli military launched air strikes at targets in Gaza – which is ruled by a Palestinian militant group called Hamas.”

The past few days have seen the worst violence in Jerusalem for years.  (Newsround, 5/11/2021)

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FRANCE

ISLAMIST KILLS POLICEWOMAN IN FRANCE

An Islamist terrorist pounced on a police officer in an area southwest of Paris, France and stabbed her to death. The terrorist was shot and killed. The 49-year-old officer was the mother of two children.

The extremist is not believed to have been under investigation or on law enforcement’s radar and was not previously arrested. He came to France illegally from Tunisia in 2009 and was granted residency last year.   (Clarion Project, 5/4/2021)

FRENCH GENERALS WARN OF CIVIL WAR

The warning comes amid a wave of jihadist attacks — including the beheading of a schoolteacher — committed by young men, none of whom were previously known to French intelligence services. The letter also comes after widespread public indignation over a French justice system compromised by political correctness — as evidenced by the refusal to prosecute an African immigrant from Mali who, while shouting “Allahu Akbar” (“Allah is the Greatest”), killed an elderly Jewish woman by breaking into her home and pushing her off her balcony.

“Every Frenchman, whatever his belief or non-belief, should everywhere be at home in continental France [l’Hexagone]; there cannot and must not exist any city or district where the laws of the Republic do not apply.” — From an open letter signed by 20 retired generals, a hundred senior officers more than a thousand other members of the French military, April 21, 2021.  (Soeren Kern, Gatestone, 5/4/2021)

Police scuffled with protesters in Paris on Saturday, firing tear gas as thousands turned out across France for May Day workers’ rights demonstrations. 

A police source told AFP that far-left “black bloc” protesters had repeatedly tried to block the trade union-led march in the French capital, with 34 people detained. 

Some protesters smashed the windows of bank branches, set fire to dustbins and threw projectiles at police, who responded with volleys of tear gas and stingball grenades. An injured policeman had to be evacuated, an AFP journalist saw.   (AFP, 5/4/2021)

By an amazing coincidence the problems between France and England turned violent on the same day that President Emmanuel Macron of France was at a ceremony to commemorate the 200th^h anniversary of the death of the Emperor Napoleon, who died on the British island of St Helena.   It says a lot that Macron wanted to publicly remember the Emperor, who conquered most of Europe, restored slavery in 1804 and tried to impose his will on the Catholic Church.

The right to bear arms goes back at least to Henry II (it may go back further to the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms that existed prior to 1066).    Henry required all able-bodied men over the age of 14 to carry a lethal weapon to protect themselves from the French. The French had been raiding the coasts of England.   It may be time to bring back this legal requirement in view of the fishing dispute with France over territorial waters.  One thing we should have learned is that you can’t trust the French – England has fought France more than any other nation; so has America, though before the revolution and in the form of French Canada.

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AFGHANISTAN

While it is true that nobody has ever won over the Afghans since Alexander the Great led his army into the country in the fourth century BC, that’s not the whole picture.   The British lost heavily in three attempts to subdue the Afghans in the 19^th Century.   More recently, the Russians wasted ten years there and lost a lot of men.   Now, we are there.   Our losses have been 2,312.   It was not a wise decision to go into the country.   But that doesn’t mean it’s wise to get out at the present time.

The difference now is that the country is more subdued than it’s ever been and therefore less of a threat.    It’s also the case that it’s a coalition of forces that is operating there.    Once the US leaves, everybody else will and Afghanistan will likely be taken over by the Taliban, providing international terrorists with a base from which to operate.

This is not a partisan issue as President Trump also announced his intention to pull out.

MUSLIM BOYS TAUGHT TO HATE NON-BELIEVERS

Boys throughout the Muslim world are increasingly indoctrinated into becoming super jihadis: ISIS 2.0. The news is coming in fast from a variety of sources.

A documentary filmmaker, Alan Duncan, for instance, recently made a brief video of his visit to al-Hawl refugee camp in northeastern Syria, run by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces. Although 80% of the camp consists of women and (27,000) children, many of whom had fled ISIS, the camp is known as the “Womb of ISIS.”

In the video, highlighted in a February 2021 report, eight- to ten-year-old boys appear raising one finger — symbolic of jihad. When asked about the gesture, one boy responded:  “This means the Islamic State remains.”  On being asked if they want to be doctors or teachers when they grow up, one boy says, “We don’t want to be a doctor. We want to be a brother fighter. We want to fight the apostates.”  Then a woman, dressed in a black burka, declares that she wants the children to become “mujahidin who fight in the way Allah” — who “fight the infidels.”  (Raymond Ibrahim,  MEF,  4/8/2021 )

“The number of NATO forces peaked at about 140,000 in 2011, but decreased in subsequent years as NATO countries wound down combat operations, handing over control to local security forces. Countries with troops still in Afghanistan include the US, Georgia, Germany, Turkey, Romania, Italy, the UK and Australia.“  (BBC News)  

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POLITICS

• BIDEN’S BIG SPENDING PLANS:   First, we would all do well to remember the frequently quoted Mr. Micawber principle.  His advice in David Copperfield was this: ‘Annual income 20 pounds, annual expenditure 19 [pounds] 19 [shillings] and six [pence], result happiness. Annual income 20 pounds, annual expenditure 20 pounds ought and six, result misery.’ 

• Conservatives triumph in Hartlepool – Hartlepool has a Conservative MP for the first time since the seat was created in 1974 after the Labour candidate Paul Williams attracted little more than half the votes of his Tory rival Jill Mortimer.  The by-election was “a key test of Labour’s appeal to its traditional heartlands,” says The Guardian, “and defeat will leave Keir Starmer facing huge questions over the future direction of his party.”  (The Week, 5/7/2021)

• Economy bouncing back, says Bank – The Bank of England says Britain is on course for its strongest year of economic growth since the Second World War as households splash their lockdown savings and businesses increase their investment.  After contracting by 9.8% in the worst recession since 1709 last year, growth will bounce back to 7.25% this year. Sandra Horsfield, UK economist at Investec, described the forecasts as “a hefty upward revision.”  (The Week, 5/7/2021)

• “Today’s billionaires’ boys club has come to understand how to make its astonishing wealth acceptable…  Set up a tax-exempt foundation, fund it with billions of dollars, invite in liberals to sit on the board, and, at munificent salaries, to run it and distribute its income to liberal causes.”   (PB, 5/7/2021)

• Modi’s costly revamp angers India — India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has come under fire for pushing ahead with a £1.3bn parliamentary revamp, including a new home, during the country’s Covid surge.  The costly renovation has been categorised as an “essential service” so construction is allowed to continue even when most building projects have been paused. CNN says the public and opposition politicians are “infuriated” and two citizens have lodged a case with the Delhi High Court to try to halt construction.   (The Week, 5/7/2021)

•   If China were serious about reducing emissions, that intent would have been evident from its new five-year plan for the years 2021-2025, released in March. This plan, however, has been described as containing “little more than vague commitments to tackle carbon dioxide emissions.”   As the Wall Street Journal wrote in an editorial in February, initiatives like this explain why “Beijing loves Biden and Paris”. They allow China, in the words of the editorial, to get “a free carbon ride” — meaning unfettered economic growth at a time when China is looking to become the world’s dominant economic and technological power.   (Judith Bergman, Gatestone, 5/8/2021)

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GERMAN CALL TO HIT RUSSIA WHERE IT REALLY HURTS

German foreign policy makers and government advisors are calling for escalating western aggression against Russia. “We must hit Russia, there, where it really hurts,” admonishes foreign policy expert Alexander Graf Lambsdorff of the Free Democratic Party of Germany (FDP). Experts at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP) support military activities – such as “a military mission in the Black Sea” – as “foreign policy intimidation” of Moscow. Disconnecting Russia from the SWIFT global payment system should also be considered. According to EU Foreign Affairs Commissioner Josep Borrell, the EU must “be prepared for a long and hard period in our relations with Russia.”  German Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer claims that Moscow is already engaged in “warfare in the middle of Europe.”  The Russian government, on the other hand, is beginning to defend itself against the EU’s sanctions and other coercive measures. At the end of last week, Moscow imposed counter-sanctions on several EU politicians. The conflict is escalating.  (German Foreign Policy, 5/3/2021)

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TALKING POINTS

• We are supposed to be a racist society, guilty of “Systemic racism.”   Yet more and more people are lining up to get into the US!

• RUSSIAN SCHOOL SHOOTING LEAVES 7 CHILDREN DEAD  —  Russian school shootings are rare in Russia.   This one was in Kazan.

• Biden’s ‘Day of Prayer’ Remarks Never Mentioned God, But It DID Talk of ‘Racial Justice’ and ‘Climate Change’   (The  latter are current obsessions of the Catholic Church!)

• “There’s nothing like family!”   Family reunion after Covid.   (Channel Ten news 5/9/2021)

• Is it time Germany opened up its stores on Sundays?  Many in Germany are familiar with the unseemly clamor to stock up  on groceries before Sundays.  That’s because here, Sunday is an explicitly noncommercial day.  Economists are demanding a more flexible approach.   (Deutsche Welle, 15 April 2021)

ISRAEL ATTACKS SYRIAN AND IRANIAN TARGETS

Syria’s state media released images of what they say are destroyed houses near Damascus (AFP/GETTY IMAGES)

Israel says it has hit dozens of targets in Syria belonging to the government and allied Iranian forces.

The Israeli military says the “wide-scale strikes” responded to rockets fired by an Iranian unit into Israel.   Syria says two civilians died and that Syrian air defenses shot down most of the missiles over Damascus.  Other reports say the death toll was higher.   Local reports said loud explosions were heard in the capital.   Pictures on social media showed a number of fires.

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PERSECUTION OF CHRISTIANS

“It’s easy to go about our lives and forget that in places like Nigeria, Iran and North Korea being a Christian can often lead to death.” — Vernon Brewer, founder and CEO of World Help, Fox News, November 4, 2019

“4,136 Christians were killed for faith-related reasons.  On average, that’s 11 Christians killed every day for their faith.” — Open Doors, World Watch List 2019

More than 245 million Christians around the world are currently suffering from persecution. — Open Doors, World Watch List, 2019 (Gatestone 11/15/2019)

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CHANGES AHEAD IF CORBYN WINS

The United Kingdom has a general election on December 12th.  It is considered the most important election in 80 years.  It will determine the issue of Brexit, the future direction of the British economy and even of the United Kingdom itself.

• “By far the most likely casualty of a Corbyn government would be the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing network, where there is a strong likelihood that other member states of the alliance will be deeply reluctant to share highly sensitive material with a British prime minister who has spent his entire political career openly associating with regimes and groups that are utterly hostile to the West and its allies.
• At the heart of his hard Left approach to foreign policy lies a deep hatred for the US and its role in safeguarding the interests of the Western democracies.
• Thus Mr. Corbyn’s instinct is to be more sympathetic to the views of Russia, Iran, North Korea and the Assad regime in Syria than Britain’s long-standing allies in Washington and Europe.   (Con Coughlin, Gatestone, 11/16/2019)

JEREMY CORBYN’S BIG NEGATIVE EFFECT ON FOREIGN POLICY

“A Corbyn-led government would quickly lead to the biggest change in Britain’s defense posture since the second world war.   Even if the country stayed in NATO, as is likely, it would be a passive member, reluctant to push back against Russian expansionism and hostile to the idea of a nuclear deterrent.   Given that NATO depends on confidence that it means what it says, this would be a severe blow to its credibility.   Britain’s Middle East policy would be revolutionized, with a more hostile stance toward Israel and the Gulf states, particularly Saudi Arabia, and a friendlier one to Iran.   America would almost certainly stop sharing critical intelligence with Downing Street, for fears that such secrets would find their way into Russian or Iranian hands.   Given Britain’s membership of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance, that would harm Europe’s ability to combat hostile states and non-state actors.

“Such a revolution would come at a sensitive time.   Mr. Trump is already disrupting established security relations (for all their differences, he and Mr. Corbyn share a common hostility to the multinational institutions that have kept the peace since 1945).   Brexit is straining relations with Britain’s European allies, while gobbling up the political class’s available bandwidth.  The Foreign Office is demoralized by decades of cuts, and the security establishment is still tainted by the weapons-of-mass-destruction fiasco.

All this is taking place at a time when Mr. Putin is on the march and Islamic State is shifting its focus from state-building to global terror. A Dangerous world may be about to become more dangerous.” (“Security questions,” Bagehot, The Economist, 11/9,2019).

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MACRON ON RUSSIA

“. . . consider Mr. Macron’s Russia policy.   He has long argued that rogue powers are more dangerous when isolated.   To this end, he has hosted Vladimir Putin at both Versailles, near Paris, and Bregancon, on the Mediterranean.   But his call for a “rapprochement” with Russia, in order to keep it out of China’s arms, has alarmed Poland and the Baltics.   “My idea is not in the least naïve,” argues Mr. Macron.   He insists that any movement would be conditional on respect for the Minsk peace accords in Ukraine.   He has not called for sanctions to be lifted.   And he sees this as a long-term strategy, that “might take ten years.”   Mr. Macron’s belief is that, eventually, Europe will need to try to find common ground with its near neighbor.   Not doing so would be a “huge mistake”.” (Briefing, The Economist, 11/9/2019)

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WHO WILL PAY FOR ENDLESS WARS?

“Future generations will pay for them:   the wars have been funded by debt.   Most Americans have had little reason to think their country is even at war.    And lucky them because war is hell.   But this disconnect helps explain why the country’s civil-military relations are as distant as they are.   It also helps explain how America came to be locked in such long and largely unproductive conflicts in the first place.   Its voters started to reckon with the rights and wrongs of the Vietnam War – then demand accountability for it – only after they felt its sting.   By contrast Donald Trump, who almost alone among national politicians decries the latest conflicts, has struggled to interest voters in them – or indeed end them.

“Though mostly wrong on the details, the president raises an important question of the long wars.   What have they achieved?” (Lexington, The Economist, 11/9/2019).

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TEMPLE MOUNT NO LONGER

154 UN nations call Temple Mount solely by Muslim name Haram al-Sharif  – EU approves text, but warns it may not do so in the future by Tovah Lazaroff, November 17, 2019

The UN gave its preliminary approval to a resolution that referred to the Temple Mount solely by its Muslim name of Haram al-Sharif.

The resolution passed at the UN’s Fourth Committee in New York 154-8, with 14 abstentions and 17 absences.   It was one of eight pro-Palestinian resolutions approved on Friday, out of a slate of more than 15 such texts the committee is expected to approve.   The UN General Assembly will take a final vote on the texts in December.

. . . Acting US Deputy Representative to the United Nations Cherith Norman Chalet told the Fourth Committee it opposed the “annual submission of more than a dozen resolutions biased against Israel.

. . .  “As the United States has repeatedly made clear, this dynamic is unacceptable,” Chalet continued.  “We see resolutions that are quick to condemn all manner of Israeli actions, but say nothing or almost nothing about terrorist attacks against innocent civilians.   And so the United States will once again vote against these one-sided resolutions and encourages other nations to do so.”
(https://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/154-UN-nations-call-Temple-Mount-solely-by-Muslim-name-Haram-al-Sharif-608135)

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GERMAN MILITIAS

Right-wing militia groups say they patrol where police turn a blind eye.  But with criminality dropping and more police than ever in Germany,  analysts and politicians say their motives are more sinister.         Deutsche Welle, 18/11/2019 

Sebastian Niedrich is one of about 20 militiamen in Berlin with a “citizen patrol” initiative.   In groups of two or three, the red-vested men patrol neighborhoods in Berlin they claim are areas where petty crime is rife.   Their initiative is called “Establish Protection Zones” (“Schafft Schutzzone”).   It is abbreviated as “SS,” which in Germany immediately brings to mind the notorious Nazi-era “SS” – the paramilitary “Protection Squadron” that persecuted millions and was directly responsible for genocide.   Niedrich rejects any such connection.   Right-wing extremist initiative:   The “Establish Protection Zones” initiative, an offshoot of Germany’s extreme-right National Democratic Party (NPD), says the areas it patrols are often popular tourist areas, as well as those with growing immigrant communities.

The first subheading of the NPD’s party platform in Berlin reads “The Problem of Foreigners” and lays out ways to close Germany’s borders, bar immigrants from receiving jobs and social benefits, and preserve Germany’s national identity.   The party’s website also prominently displays images of its logo-wearing patrols, superimposed with slogans like “Protect Germans!” and “Germans helping Germans!”   Multiple attempts to disband or ban the party entirely have failed in courts.   The extreme-right NPD in western Germany, has made it their task to protest against Islam.   A study on German society’s biggest fears released earlier this year by the Berlin Social Science Center showed that one in three respondents feared “foreign infiltration” on account of too many immigrants. Over half feared criminality.

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GERMANY-TAIPEI LINKS

German politician urges military links with Taipei                             Taipei Times, 19 Nov 2019

Germany and Taiwan should conduct military exchanges, which would be more meaningful than exchanges with China, German lawmaker Ulrich Lechte, a member of the Bundestag Committee on Foreign Affairs, said on Sunday.   “The free world should stand together,” the Free Democratic Party lawmaker wrote on Facebook.  The Taipei Representative Office in Germany’s Munich office shared Lechte’s post on its Facebook page, and thanked him for his continuing support of Taiwan.   The German newspaper Bild am Sonntag reported that 62 nations, including China, are to receive training from the Bundeswehr, Germany’s military.

Amnesty International arms and human rights expert Mathias John criticized the plans to train Chinese soldiers, telling the paper that doing so was “incomprehensible” given China’s “human rights situation and the role the Chinese People’s Liberation Army plays” in human rights violations in China.   John also brought up the protests in Hong Kong and the Hong Kong police’s response to them.  Germany should “send a clear message and immediately cease all military cooperation with China,” he said.   A spokesperson for the German Ministry of Defense told the paper that Chinese soldiers regularly participate in educational events organized by the German military, including international officer courses, as well as officer training courses offered at military schools, universities and military leadership academies.   The weekly news magazine Der Spiegel on Saturday reported that the German government is planning to send warships into the South China Sea and through the Taiwan Strait as a way of “refuting Chinese territorial claims” in those areas (http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2019/11/19/2003726106)

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ADMIRAL HORATIO NELSON and THE BATTLE OF TRAFALGAR

 214 Years Ago

The Battle of Trafalgar, fought 21 October 1805, was one of the most important and decisive Naval engagements of all time, decisively establishing the supremacy of the Royal Navy on the high seas.   Rather than a conventional engagement between lines of battle with gunnery duels, the English made a bold attack that allowed them to gain local superiority over the enemy and raked their ships with devastating broadsides.   The Franco-Spanish fleet was decisively defeated and British supremacy on the high seas was decisively established for the rest of the 19th century.   Lord Nelson’s defeat of the French and Spanish fleets at Trafalgar allowed British trade to flourish around the world, laying the foundations for Britain’s emergence as an economic superpower.   It also made possible the Greatest Century of Missions, as Protestant missionaries were able to sail to every corner of the world.   The Royal Navy’s domination of the high seas brought an end to the slave trade in the 19th Century.   (Reformation SA, 2019)

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TO THE POINT

• The Chinese Ambassador to the UK has accused both the UK and the US of interfering in Chinese domestic affairs.   He is referring to British and American support for student protesters in Hong Kong.   He has a point. Democracy isn’t working too well right now in the US or the UK.   Perhaps we should shut up until things calm down at home!
• “The escalation of the unrest in Hong Kong coincides with recent mass protests around the world.   These protests – in Bolivia, Iran and elsewhere – are not connected.   However, they are loosely linked thematically in that they concern inequality, political freedoms, corruption and climate change.”  (“Protests catch fire,” USA Today, 11/19/2019)
• Prince Andrew’s BBC interview in which he denies having had a relationship with a 17- year-old girl, courtesy of Jeffrey Epstein, has failed to convince many.   Members of the royal family rarely give interviews.   It’s difficult to remember one, which was advantageous to the royals.   Perhaps they just haven’t had as much practice at lying as politicians!  (Prince Andrew has since withdrawn from public duties, “for the foreseeable future”.)
• A 55-year-old man in China’s Inner Mongolia region has been diagnosed with bubonic plague after eating wild rabbit, the third recorded case of the deadly disease in the country.
• A famous person I’ve never heard of is complaining about the patriotic song “Rule Britannia,” which dates back to the days when the British Royal Navy governed the world.   Is she objecting to the fact that the royal navy did more than any other institution to end the slave trade?   From 1810 to 1860 the West Africa Squadron freed 250,000 slaves. (see article above on Horatio Nelson; last sentence) “Slavery was a fact of life in the sixteenth century.   The African slave trade was already the largest form of commerce in the world.   No one had the least qualms about it, least of all Africa’s own tribal rulers.” (“To Rule the Waves,” page 2, Arthur Herman, 2004)
• “The global debt ballooned to a record high of more than $250 trillion and shows no sign of slowing down, according to a new report from the Institute of International Finance (IIF).   . . . Extended low interest rates and easy money has facilitated the accumulation of a bone crushing amount of debt over the last decade or so,” Dylan Riddle, a spokesperson for the IIF told ABC News in a statement.   “This debt has helped fuel global growth, however, we must focus on managing the current debt load, and deploying resources for more productive means — like fighting climate change or investing in growth.”  (ABC News)